Day 4: Recycling leftovers!

So here we are, day 4 and I am happy to report no money was spent. Tonight we used leftovers from the night before to make a new meal. I call it recycling leftovers and it's one of my favorite things to do! Somehow, I swear, the second meal always turns out better. haha

Remember dinner from last night? It was just tacos. As yummy as they were I wanted to do a little something to mix it up so I raided the pantry/fridge again. One of the things I already had in my fridge was a package of peppers (2 reds, a yellow, and an orange). I decided I was going to make the hubby super happy tonight and make it a "Garbage Nachos" night! I sliced one of the red peppers and threw it in a skillet to saute it. After a few minutes I tossed in some onions from the night before. When they started to get a little soft I poured the leftover ground turkey in, gave it a few stirs, and put 1 more tablespoon of that amazing fajita marinade from the night before. Next, I heated up the leftover refried beans as the skillet of goodness was still sizzling a bit on the stove. After your beans are warm take a brownie pan or pie pan and fill it with tortilla corn chips. Plop the beans on top of the chips, than add the mixture of peppers, onions, and meat. Next, sprinkle a little cheese on the top (I chose some of the colby jack I bought yesterday). Pop your pan into the oven on about 350 just until the cheese starts to melt good, than take it out. Last but not least put a plop of sour cream on top and get ready to chow down!!! I know, I know... Taco night, than nacho night? Sounds like we are eating terribly! However, I have to say, 93% lean turkey, corn tortilla chips, fresh onion, fresh red pepper, a little bit of low fat sour cream, a little bit of cheese, and some beans don't really come out all that bad. I think they look a lot worse than they are ;) With our nachos we threw in a big bowl of grapes because they were getting close to going bad. It turned out to be a fabulous Friday night meal! :)

Meat+peppers+onions= pure deliciousness!!!

Dinner is served! Hubby and I just ate straight out of the pan! As you can see I made a mini burrito out of the nacho mixture for my 2year old. The nachos are just too messy for him to handle just yet ;)

Toddler approved!!! He ate it all!

So there you have it, our delicious recycled leftover dinner :) I will have a post soon about meal planning, recycling, and "dominoing" meals.

As for the other meals today? Same old boring lunches... But totally YUMMY!

Breakfast: I was bad and didn't have breakfast, however, my toddler had a banana and some dry cereal.

Lunch: The kiddos (my son and a friend's daughter I kept) had dino pb&j's with apple sauce, half a cheese stick, and spinach leaves with a little ranch dressing. I had a bowl of chicken salad on multiseed crackers with my favorite Australian style yogurt! :)

Aren't the little dinosaur sandwiches cute? :) My mom got me that sandwich mold last year and I finally used it! (sorry Mom!)

I LOVE that yogurt! And those crackers... And the chicken salad... I just loved my lunch ;) 

So there you go... The end of day 4! I feel like things are going well so far. There are still many meal possibilities left in the pantry. If you would like to suggest any ideas post your comments at the bottom! :) And don't forget to stay tuned for the upcoming post on meal planning! :)